Day Eight (Thursday)
Let the fun begin. We started by easing into the day, didn’t leave the house until around 10 am. First, we went out to Ardbeg to schedule a tasting for tomorrow at noon. Then we went to our tasting at Laphroaig. There Katy and I and two others had a fabulous time tasking from three different barrels.
Though I was driving, I got to smell and have a small tasting. Of all three samples we tasted, we got to get 250 ml of our favorite to take home in lovely bottles. Mine was the first; Katy’s was the last. Though I did enjoy the second one, we felt that the second one was closer to what we could get on the shelves back home. If you ever have the opportunity to spend the money for the warehouse tasting, it is worth it. I was amazed that it took about 90 minutes for us to sample the three barrels. These samples are not whiskeys that you’ll see in the store, and the history and conversations – even among the four tasters were very enlightening. Even though I wasn’t consuming like Katy, it was delightful and educational. I have to say that Laphroaig set the bar high for the rest of our tours.
After the tasting, we traveled the ten miles to Bowmore for lunch and a walk around. Once back in Port Ellen, we chilled for a while, a.k.a napped. Before leaving the house, we were trying to plan for the coming days while on the island. The thing that surprised me was that even though there are only 3,000+ folks that live on the island, you have to schedule everything ahead of time. Maybe it is because of COVID, but you have to book a table to get dinner, and it is tough to do on the same day. Even though we have a car, we failed to schedule a taxi for Friday’s tasting because you have to book so far in advance. We thought about walking the three-mile out and three miles back, but since Friday is supposed to be raining and very windy, we agreed to drive.
So with Friday planned out, Katy and I took a little walk around town and were planning on getting takeout for dinner. But we instead went to Islay Inn’s bar and had a wonderful dinner and drinks. Afterward, we went to #1 Charlotte Street, our last stop for the night pub. Then, while enjoying some fine pints, we planned that Saturday would be a driving day to see the whole island and that Monday would take the ferry to the island south of here.
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